Our Synagogue

Anna will be celebrating her bat mitzvah at Ohr Kodesh Congregation, a traditional Conservative synagogue.

Men and boys: please cover your heads. You may find kippot (head coverings) at the entrance to the sanctuary. Jewish men over the age of 13: please wear a tallit (prayer shawl) during the service.

Women: Please cover your heads if you are called to participate in the service on the bimah. Otherwise, covering your heads is optional.

In observance of the Sabbath, please do not enter the building with cameras or with cellphones or other electronics.

The services are long, ending at about noon (with kiddush, the festive meal, ending at about 1:00pm). Families with young children often bring books and sit in the back of the sanctuary, where the children may play quietly. If they become restless during the service, you may take them to one of several age-appropriate (religious) play and youth groups or you may take them to (and supervise them at) the synagogue playground.

The Services

The Shabbat morning prayers comprise four services. They are the:

• Preliminary Service (Birchot Hashachar): Prepares us for the morning service. The prayers, selected largely from Psalms, praise G-d and extol Him as Creator and Sovereign.
• Morning Service (Shacharit): Begins with a formal call to prayer. Includes the Shema, proclaiming the uniqueness of G-d, and the Amidah, said individually while standing and then repeated by the prayer leader.
• Torah Service: Anna's participation in the Sabbath morning prayers begins here, at about 9:20 am.

  This service begins with the removal from the Ark of two Sifrei Torah, the handwritten scrolls of the Five Books of Moses. It continues with the reading of the parashah, the Torah portion of the week, continues with the haftarah, a selection from the Prophets, and ends with the returning of the scrolls to the ark.

• Additional Service (Musaf): Recited on the Sabbath and festivals. It includes the Amidah, said individually while standing and then repeated by the prayer leader, and ends with various hymns and a wish for a Shabbat Shalom, a peaceful Sabbath, at about 12:00 noon.

At the end of services, the entire congregation is invited to kiddush, the festive meal, downstairs in the social hall. The congregation, visitors, and guests usually hang around until 1:00pm or so.

Mystery Leader

The Shabbat morning prayers will be led by lay members of the congregation. To lead the congregation in the Additional Service (the Musaf Amidah), Anna has invited a member of the congregation whose vocal talent defies description. We are not at liberty to name that individual at this time, but we can say that those who hear him sing are often left in tears.

Our mystery leader will be praying in both the festival mode and in the traditional Sabbath Ahavah Rabboh mode, which makes use of the scale known variously as Hava Nagila, Freygish, or Phrygian dominant.

In honor of Anna's bat mitzvah, our mystery leader has chosen to sing this scale in the rarely heard key of C♭♭.